Friday, May 04, 2007

Pasta is good for you, isn't that nice.

For lunch today I warmed up some spagetti from last night. To mine I added some pesto from a bottle, some capers and some medium soft tofu. To the girls I added butter, a bit of tofu and lots of parmesan. It was so yummy. Can't believe I snuck tofu into the girls. As I was making it I remember from some of my recent reading that pasta has a low GI (essentially a low GI food will take longer to digest, keep you feeling full longer and decrease inflamation while a high GI food (donut) causes a spike in your blood sugar. I couldn't remember why but I found this explanation:

"Pasta has a low GI because of the physical entrapment of ungelatinised starch granules in a sponge-like network of protein (gluten) molecules in the pasta dough. Pasta is unique in this regard. As a result, pastas of any shape and size have a fairly low GI (30 to 60). Asian noodles such as hokkein, udon and rice vermicelli also have low to intermediate GI values."

Also interesting is that for GI purposes whole wheat bread is no better for you than white bread. This is because the grains used commercially are ground so fine.

Lots more info here

2 comments:

Two Mittens said...

I heard that if you cook them aldente they are lower GI.

Mmmm...noodles!

Mrs. M said...

Aldente! Aldente!
Saying that loud with an accent makes me want to wear bright red lipstick, with big black curly hair and black heeled tap shoes.